A day in the life of a Lisburn accountant

She is married to Will and they live locally with their daughter Madison, 18 months.

Claire has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Studies with Computing and qualified as a chartered accountant in 2009. She has worked in both Practice and Industry as an accountant, before deciding to set up her own practice last year.

I get up after 7am and get myself ready before Madison wakes around 8am. I try to be well organised before going to bed, so it’s just a matter of getting up and out in the morning. I am very blessed that both our families help with child care arrangements. No two days are ever really the same. I could be out with a client all day or I could be in the office meeting prospective clients, or getting plenty of work done. I spend time networking too as this is good for business and have made many contacts through the Lisburn Entrepreneurs’ Network (Lisburn branch) and organisations like Lisburn Enterprise Organisation and Women in Business.

The business provides a wide range of accountancy services to individual clients and small businesses. The small business is our passion and so we pay particular attention to the needs of each individual client and aim to make a positive contribution.

Owning a small business myself, I am very much aware of the challenges and time pressures upon business owners and managers, and so our aim is to make things easier for clients and share the load. Our practice provides compliance and consultancy services to private clients and small businesses, including: Self-Assessment Tax Returns; Year End Accounts; Management Accounts; Bookkeeping services; Payroll Services; VAT and consultancy work. I am a Xero Certified Partner which is a relatively new cloud based accounting system which is seeing massive growth in the UK presently.

I normally leave work about 5.30pm and collect Madison, before going home to prepare dinner and spend some quality time with her and my husband. Once she is in bed I will do some more work before calling it a night.

I strongly believe that if you put the hours into the business, you will get the best out of it. It’s also very important to take time out to work on the business, not just in the business. Without the support of Will, my husband, I could not have done all of this – I am very thankful to him for always believing in me.